To use the wireless service, you need a wireless b/g card; most of the new laptops have this built in. Rather than purchasing MS Office, why not download free Open Office and give it a try? Once you are on cable, the download should not be too much. OO documents are compatible with Office, from what others here say. Several others here use OO and can answer any questions you might have. By all means get 2GB of memory. The size of the hard drive is up to you, but it sounds as if you don't need a huge one, given the history of your desktop. You might also consider later purchasing an external hard drive just for storage of pictures, music, and such. These are not at all costly these days. Look for plenty of USB ports and built-in memory card reader to help in transferring your pictures to the hard drive from your camera. A combo CD/DVD burner is almost a given, as that is pretty standard now. The 15.4" wide screen is not at all bad, but the 17" is nice if you can find it in your price range. Check around and watch the sale circulars. There are some great buys to be found.

I thought my budget was reasonable too, but most of the sofas I see in that price range just look really cheap and poorly made. I have seen some that are good quality, but are very modern looking with the square arms and block feet. Do you think I could do a more modern sofa with my chairs (which are being scratched to death by the cat even as we speak)? Thanks for the options dee and yayagal. Those are lovely, but I should have mentioned that I have a real aversion to leather - not sure why. I should also mention that I'm in a small city in Canada so furniture prices are (I seem to be finding out) quite a bit higher. Here are links to a mid-priced brand of sofa many retailers carry here. If anyone has an inclination, have a look and see if there is anything that would go with my chairs. Here is a link that might be useful: van gogh sofas

Thanks everyone! I don't want to send the sofa back--I really like it but am just thrown off with this color thing. What I am hoping for is that by changing the wall color, it will change how the sofa looks??? I just am not sure how to go about this--by picking a beige with a pink tone, does that make it look more pink? Do you have to pick something with a different tone to make it look different? Also, the fabric isn't canvas but twill--but I do think sort of that same color someone mentioned about canvas. Another thing, I don't mind painting so that part isn't too big of a deal, just a bummer that I just painted and really liked the color but still, I'm OK with repainting--just really need to get the right color!:)By the way, tried to take pictures but just can't get it to look the same (I don't have a GReat camera!). Anyway, I am going to go through your answers more tonight and look at some of the websites etc. suggested. Thanks again for taking the time to answer!:)

I love your wall colors. LOL I can only tell you what gives me inspiration on pulling colors, is fabric. I go to fabric web pages, especially the ones who have the fabric collections, and usually can get a sense of where I need to go with colors. Because of my simple decorating taste and limited knowledge, I find it easier to concentrate one two rooms at one time and not concentrate on the entire house at once. That's just way too confusing for me. Right now I'm concentrating on foyer/great room. When I finish making those fabric and furniture choices, I'll move on to the other roooms. All of my rooms are off of the great room and don't necessarily "match" the great room. I thought it important for the great room and foyer to "flow" since people will definitely be walking through the foyer into the great room. The bedrooms are similar in hue and I went with all muted colors so there are no "clashes" on your senses as you'd walk from one room to the other. However, the bedrooms and guest bath are all different and will be decorated according to their wall color. All the flooring is the same in all the rooms. With all your adjoining room colors flowing so well together it shouldn't be too difficult to find fabric that will incorporate all those colors and that could be your "jumping off" point, as they call it. One more thing, I would definitely cover the sofa because I think sofa's should be solid or look solid (squint your eyes) and if it looks solid, it's a keeper. Bring in print from other accessories, rugs, pillows, artwork. My great room is Rich Cream, which is a very pale yellow. I plan on a light colored fabric, i.e. beige or something close to that, for the sofa, and the accessories will have the green from the foyer and another 1 or 2 colors as accents. Still up in the air on that. I find if I take it in baby steps then I gain inspiration from the one item/thing I completed. I won't know what fabrics I'll want for chairs and curtains until I can see and feel my sofa. My decorating is based a lot of how the surroundings make me feel also. So maybe you might want to start with the sofa color and then see where that color leads your senses. Here's what inspired my foyer color that leads into my great room color. Don't tell my DH I sent out a photo of the mantle before it was complete. Eekkk!! He likes his "works of art" to be complete before the world sees them. LOL Good luck. My inspiration chicken!! Foyer wall and ceilling Great room